Living a Lie
by JetfireSkyfire
Summary: humanformers! Liam "Lightspeed" Tsukino lost someone close to him, his fiancé Amara "Anna" Sampson, to suicide. The only other person who knows is his brother Nick "Nosecone" Tsukino. Now Liam has to take care of his daughter Mary-Ann without Amara's help. Eventually, the truth does come out. How will the others react? Find out for yourself. Art belongs to it's owner.
1. Oh no!

Liam tried to make her stop and see what she'd be missing out on but she wouldn't listen and pulled the trigger. A male scream makes its way through the building. The baby in Liam's arms cries when he screams.

People stop what they're doing and come rushing to see what happened. That's when they see the dead body of Amara Sampson on the ground, a gun clutched in her hand and a blood trail trickling out of her head.

Clutching his baby close, Liam pushes through the crowd so they won't have to see him crying. At the back of the crowd, Liam's brother Nick follows him when he makes it out. "Liam, what happened?" Nick asked, not knowing because of the crowd.

Not stopping his stride, Liam says, "It's Amara. She's dead."

Nick, however, did stop and stared at Liam's back. "Did you say…dead? How?"

That made Liam stop and turn to his two-year-younger brother, tears now flowing down his cheeks. "She committed suicide by shooting herself in the head."

Sadness crossed Nick's face and he walked to his brother and hugged him, "I'm sorry bro." Normally, Liam would hug back but he can't because of the crying baby in his arms making it impossible to do so.

Instead, Liam rests his head on Nick's head and says, "It's not your fault. Not even _I_ could stop her."

"She'd want you to keep living though, and take care of your daughter, Mary-Ann," Nick stated. "In the meantime, let's go home. Scott, Alex, and Sky are probably wondering where we are."

With that, the two go home to their other three brothers.

* * *

As soon as Liam walked in the door carrying Mary-Ann, Sky came barreling in and hugged him. "You're back!" Following Liam was Nick, who also got a hug from Sky.

"Hi Sky," Liam says in a hushed voice, indicating that Mary-Ann is asleep. Walking over to her crib, Liam places her in and puts her stuffed bear in as well.

"Where's Amara?" Sky asked quietly, which was unusual for him for he was the loudest of the five Tsukinos. Liam paused and hesitated to answer before quietly saying, "She went back to her house."

Both Liam and Nick knew it was a bold-faced lie but Sky didn't and went along with it. Sighing heavily, Liam went upstairs. "Come get me when Mary-Ann wakes," was heard before Liam closed his door.

Sky and Nick look at each other and Nick shrugs before they go to find Scott and Alex.

* * *

It had been fifteen years since the incident and only Liam and Nick still knew about it.

Mary-Ann, now fifteen years old, never had the chance to know who her mother was and spent her time with her father and four uncles. Unless she was at school or hanging out with her friends.

One day, she decided to ask her father about it. She approached him with caution, for he was talking to Scott about something. Sky, Nick, and Alex were also present and see Mary-Ann come in.

When Liam and Scott were done talking, Liam turned to leave and nearly jumped when he saw Mary-Ann.

"Hi dad," she half-smiled and hugged him. "Mary-Ann, hi." Liam hugged her, saying, "What are you doing here?" Looking up at her father, she said, "I have a question. Where's my mom?"

Liam eyed Nick before looking down, not really wanting to talk about it.

"You know, I haven't seen Amara in over fifteen years," Scott said. "Weren't you two supposed to get married when Mary-Ann was a year old?"

After a moment of silence, Nick bangs his fist on the table and stands up, getting everyone's attention. Facing his cherry red haired brother, he says, "Liam, I can't take it anymore. Why don't you just tell them the truth? If not, then I will."

All eyes turn to Liam, who places a hand over his mouth and sobs brokenly. This got confused looks from the other three Tsukinos and even Mary-Ann. Removing his hand slightly, Liam chokes out, "She's dead. Amara died fifteen years ago from suicide." He then put his hand back over his mouth and continued to sob.

There were two equal looks of surprise from Scott and Sky, Alex was pissed off as usual, and Mary-Ann had started crying.

"He says he tried to stop her but she wouldn't listen and shot herself in the head," Nick said for Liam.

Unexpectedly, Mary-Ann said, "Yeah, he may have said that but then again maybe he lied." With that, she ran out crying.

The five brothers had looked at her when she said that and Liam went after her when she ran out saying, "Mary-Ann, wait!"

When Mary-Ann got outside, the first thing she did was run into the street and stood there, waiting for the oncoming car to hit her. Liam saw this, however, and pushed her out of the way only to get hit by the car himself.

The driver of the car stopped when hitting Liam, backed up, and then got out of the car to go to him. Mary-Ann went to Liam's side when the driver backed up and kneeled by him.

The extent of the damage was severe and the man lying on the ground is unconscious. Looking up at the driver, Mary-Ann says, "Call 911." He does so and tells what happened to the person who answered.

Within no time, the ambulance shows up to take Liam to the hospital. One of the medics, a small guy with hair as red as Mary-Ann's father and a blue visor, walks up to Mary-Ann and says, "Do you wish to go with him?" Nodding once, Mary-Ann climbs into the back of the ambulance.


	2. Something Gone Wrong

Mary-Ann watched the doctors work on her father, doing what they can for him. They had been going for a couple hours.

It was then she realized maybe she made the wrong decision in running into the street. She almost lost her dad because of it. All he had wanted to do was protect her and he ended up paying for it.

When the doctors did what they could, they left Mary-Ann with an unconscious Liam. Someone knocked on the doorframe and she looked up to see Nick and the person who ran over Liam and who had called 911.

"Hey Mary-Ann," said the driver. He had a visor as well, only he had brown hair and he wore a white tank top, a black lightweight jacket with the top button buttoned, and red jeans. "My name is Sam Peake. Everyone calls me either Streetwise or Streets.

"Look, I'm sorry I ran over your father. It just…happened so fast I had no time to stop," Streetwise continued.

He was going to say something else but Mary-Ann stopped him by saying, "It's ok. He would've gotten me out of the street anyway."

She then looked at looked to the figure on the bed, a lock of auburn curls falling into her face. "I mean, all he's wanted to do is protect me since my mom died fifteen years ago." Closing her eyes and head facing the ground, Mary-Ann let the tears that had welled up loose.

That's when she heard a voice. One that she hadn't heard for a few hours. "Mary-Ann, how long have you been there?"

Mary-Ann's eyes immediately flew open and she gasped lightly. Slowly, she looked up and sure enough, Liam's eyes are open and he's looking right at her.

Smiling widely, Mary-Ann says, "Daddy! I've been here for a few hours, wondering if you'd be ok." She proceeded to sit close to his head so he could see her better, seeing as how part of his visor is missing.

As soon as she had said 'daddy,' Liam smiled brightly. It may have been years since he was last called that by her, but it still brought a smile to his face when she did call him daddy.

"I'll be fine hon." A hand tried to reach for her but wasn't able to. Instead, Mary-Ann gripped the hand that tried to reach for her.

Liam struggled to sit up and in the end; Mary-Ann helped him up. Once he is sitting, the bandages on his upper body are visible.

That didn't stop Mary-Ann from bear hugging her father. However, when Liam hugged back, it's one armed because the other has a cast and sling on.

"You might wanna be careful, he's still injured," came a voice from the door.

Mary-Ann was still hugging Liam when she turned to the voice and saw the tiny medic from earlier.

Blinking once, Mary-Ann says, "I've seen you before. You asked me if I wanted to ride with my father here."

The medic nodded once and turned his head to Streetwise. "Hi Streets," he hugged the other, who hugged back. "Hey First Aid," Streetwise said in reply.

"First Aid? I think I heard that name before," Mary-Ann said. "I know I've heard the names my father and my uncles are called. Lightspeed, Nosecone, Scattershot, Strafe, and Afterburner."

* * *

It's been three days since the car incident and some of Liam's injuries have healed and he even got his visor fixed.

With it being night time, the Tsukinos are asleep, the five brothers on the floor in a pile in the living room instead of their beds in their rooms and Mary-Ann on the couch.

Of course, none of them noticed that Liam seems to be disturbed.

* * *

The Tsukinos, Mary-Ann included, are in battle against the Thorne family of psychos.

It was then that something happened. Afterburner had fired at one of them and missed, only to be ripped to shreds by him.

Soon, the others were to follow. Strafe was shot down and would've been torn apart had Lightspeed not interfered. Only thing is, he got knocked into a wall and injured so he couldn't do anything but watch.

He then heard Scattershot screaming as he got he got torn into by one's teeth. Lightspeed couldn't believe this was happening. There was something about it that had him still watching before he crawled away into a ditch, curl up and repeatedly saying, "This is just a dream."

When he looked out of the ditch, he saw Nosecone and Mary-Ann lying on the ground not moving.

That's when he opened his mouth…

* * *

"Noooo!"

Trying to sit up, Lightspeed found he couldn't. One reason was that there were people on him and the second being the cast on his arm.

Fortunately for him, the cry was loud enough to wake up the others, in which only two sat up and allowed Lightspeed to get up as well.

"What was that about 'Speed?" Strafe asked, not in his usual energetic self. "Just thought you'd scream during the night for no reason? I thought we were going to see some action…"

Strafe had fallen back to sleep in midsentence.

Nosecone was just waking up and rubbing his eyes, yawned.

Lightspeed looked from Afterburner, to Scattershot, to Mary-Ann.

"What's going on?" Nosecone asked.

"Yeah Lightspeed. What _**is **_going on?" Scattershot repeated.

Sighing, Lightspeed said, "It's nothing."

"You wake up screaming," Scattershot places a hand on Lightspeed's shoulder. "You're body's shaking, and you say it's nothing. I don't believe you."

Looking to Scattershot, Lightspeed says four words only. "I had a nightmare."

Mary-Ann got off the couch and stumbled to her father, kneeling down to hug him. "Everything's going to be fine dad. There's nothing to worry about."

Hugging back, Lightspeed hmm'ed and didn't say anything else.


	3. You're a TRANSGENDER?

Three months since Lightspeed told the truth and was accidentally hit by Streetwise's car and in those three months, he's had the same nightmare where Strafe was in a coma and Lightspeed was the last one left after a fight.

However, Nosecone, Lightspeed, and Mary-Ann woke up screaming one night. The three of them got out of bed and left their room, one of them stumbling because he can't see, not because of the dark but because he can't see a thing, everything is dark to him.

"Lightspeed, Mary-Ann, is that you?" came Nosecone's voice.

Someone shuffled towards him. A hand touched Nosecone's shoulder. It didn't feel feminine so he figured it must be his brother and his suspicion was confirmed when he reached up and felt long hair pulled back into a messy, loose ponytail. Only Lightspeed would have his hair like that.

Only then did Nosecone know that Lightspeed would be there for him, no matter what.

Just then, a light turned on. Nosecone and Mary-Ann turned to see a groggy Scattershot in his pajamas, visor almost falling off his face.

"What's going on here?" Scattershot asked, voice hoarse.

"It was just a bad dream Scatters," Lightspeed said, turning to where he thought Scattershot was.

"You sure Speed?" Scattershot asked.

"Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye," was Lightspeed's response.

"Alright then, go to sleep! Dad's on his way," Scattershot told them.

With that said and done, Scattershot turned off the light and went back to his room.

Mary-Ann walked over to her father and uncle. "I don't think I've met your father before."

"That's because the past years when he'd come, you didn't notice because you'd be in your room doing whatever it was you were doing," Nosecone said.

"Plus, he's from Japan. He told us he came from Japan after graduating college. So he may have an accent when talking," Lightspeed added.

"I thought our last name sounded Japanese," Mary-Ann stated.

"Well, now you know," both Lightspeed and Nosecone said at the same time.

"Anyway, can I sleep with you dad?" asked Mary-Ann.

Giving no thought into it, Lightspeed said, "Of course you can."

Internally squealing, Mary-Ann hugged her father and said, "I love you daddy."

Smiling widely, Lightspeed hugged her and said, "Love you too Mary-Ann. I always have and always will."

A smile crossed Mary-Ann's face when Lightspeed said that.

She then guided the blind to his room where the two slept comfortably.

Nosecone shrugged and went back to his bed and went back to sleep.

* * *

In the morning, Mary-Ann woke up to being snuggled close to Lightspeed, who had his arms around her and appeared to still be sleeping.

Not wanting to wake him, she stayed where she was, which was perfectly fine with her. She loved snuggling close to him because of how warm and comfortable he is.

The warmth and comfortableness of her father made her smile and snuggle closer to him, not wanting to leave his grip, which did get a bit tighter when she got closer.

Someone kissed the top of her head and she automatically knew her father was up. That and he had spoken.

"You cold or something?" Lightspeed asked.

"No, it's just that you're warm and comfortable. Other than the fact that you love me unconditionally, would do anything for me, and would protect me, I love that about you. I could stay like this all day," Mary-Ann told him, bringing a smile to his face.

"I'm glad you find me warm and comfortable, but I have to get dressed hon," Lightspeed informed.

"Aww…daddy!" Mary-Ann said sadly.

"Sorry Mary-Ann, but I don't want my dad thinking I'm lazy," admitted Lightspeed.

With that, Lightspeed let go of his daughter and got out of bed. "Plus, you have that talent show today that I'll be going to."

"You're going to that?" Mary-Ann asked while her dad pulled his pajama shirt off and put on a red V-neck with long sleeves.

"Why wouldn't I? My only daughter's in it so of course I'm going." Lightspeed managed to find his visor and put it on, turning to smile at Mary-Ann.

Getting out of bed, Mary-Ann went to her father and pulled his ponytail out of his shirt before smiling up at him.

"I'm going to get dressed," Mary-Ann said.

"Alright. I'll see you a little later then," Lightspeed answered and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

Before going to get dressed, Mary-Ann kissed her father's cheek.

When Mary-Ann left, Lightspeed finished getting dressed and when he got his blue jeans on, the doorbell rang. Zipping and buttoning his pants, Lightspeed went to get the door saying, "I'll get it."

He opened the door and saw someone standing there, someone he didn't recognize.

Blinking once, his confusion was evident.

"Liam, it's me. Your father," came the familiar Japanese accent.

"Dad? What did you do?" Lightspeed looked almost like he was hurt.

Four other figures came out into the hallway when they heard Lightspeed ask the second question, one piggybacking on Scattershot.

"I got an appearance change because I didn't like the way I looked," replied their father.

"But you were always confident with the way you looked. You didn't care what anyone else thought about you," Lightspeed had a saddened look on his face. "Why'd you do it?"

"I guess after years of people commenting on the way I looked, it finally got to me. I just couldn't take it anymore," came the reply.

Shaking his head, Lightspeed turned to leave, "I don't believe you."

He didn't get far before a figure glomped him and sobbed into his back.

"I'm sorry Liam. I just couldn't help it," came from the glomper before the transgender snuggled closer to him.

It was then that a voice came from somewhere upstairs. "Dad? Have you seen where my blue shirt that says 'Save the Earth' in green went?"

"Last time I saw it you had gotten pizza sauce on it," Lightspeed called to her.

When Mary-Ann had called downstairs, the transgender looked up, having never heard her voice before and when Lightspeed responded, he had a surprised look.

"OK, thanks," called Mary-Ann.

"Sure thing," Lightspeed responded.

"Who's she?" asked the person glomping Lightspeed.

Lightspeed pulled free from the grip and looking over his shoulder said, "She's my daughter. Her name's Mary-Ann and she's fifteen years old.

"Sadly, you wouldn't know that because she hasn't come out of her room the past times you were here. Therefore she doesn't know you either."

After a short moment, the transgender Tsukino fully came in the house and followed his sons to the living room where he sat in a chair, separated from his five children.

It wasn't long before Mary-Ann came downstairs wearing another blue and green shirt and blue jeans.

When she went into the living room and saw what looked like another female, she looked to her father and uncles with a confused look.

"That's our transgender father," Strafe's voice came clear as day.

"OK," was all Mary-Ann said before she went and sat in between her father and an uncle, hugging Lightspeed when she did sit down.

The transgender smiled sadly at Mary-Ann, she just stared and hugged Lightspeed.

A growl broke the silence and Lightspeed placed a hand on his stomach.

When that happened, Mary-Ann let go of her father, who got up and went to the kitchen. "I'm going to get breakfast."

Getting up as well, Mary-Ann followed Lightspeed saying, "I will too."

Once in the kitchen, Lightspeed went to the cupboard and got a cereal bar from the section marked only for him, tearing the wrapper open and biting into the cereal bar.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?" Lightspeed turned and looked at Mary-Ann.

"Why didn't you say my grandfather was a transgender?" whispered Mary-Ann.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know? A lot probably happened in the year I didn't see him," Lightspeed whispered after gulping down the bite of food.

Shortly after saying what needed to be said, Lightspeed took another bite.

Out of the blue, Mary-Ann hugged Lightspeed and snuggled close to him, a smile crossing her face.

Lightspeed put an arm around her, hugging her.

"You're so warm and comfortable," She knew she'd already said that but she couldn't help saying it again.

"I know. Hey, want to know what your mom said about me before you were born?" Lightspeed asked.

Looking up at him, "What'd she say about you?"

Smiling brightly, Lightspeed said, "She said that the reason almost every female was in love with me was because I'm dashingly good-looking."

Gifting him with a warm smile, Mary-Ann agreed. "And you are."

"Thanks hon," chuckled Lightspeed.

"You're welcome daddy," Mary-Ann responded and snuggles closer to him.

The two stayed like this for a while and Lightspeed got to finish his cereal bar without any more interruptions.


End file.
